Gospel: The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Today marks the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, and the Gospel reading will be lifted from the narrative of St Luke's account (click here for today's Mass Readings from USCCB).

As Jesus continues his journey to Jerusalem, he is confronted by a scholar of the law who wants to test him. In the Gospels of St Mark and St Matthew, Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment. Here, in St Luke's Gospel, the lawyer asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. In the other two Gospels, Jesus answers the question by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, on loving God with all your heart, and Leviticus 19:18, on loving your neighbor. Here Jesus asks the expert to answer this question, "What is written in the law?" The man is caught and responds with Deuteronomy 6:5. This verse is one of the most important prayers in Judaism, and it was said twice a day in Jesus' time. Love of God and love of neighbor are what is required for eternal life. Jesus' response is simple, "Do this and you will live."

Having been shown up by Jesus, the lawyer tries another question: Who is my neighbor whom I should love like myself? In the society of Jesus time, with its distinctions between the Jews and the Gentiles, men and women, clean and unclean, this was a trick question. Jesus responds with one of the most beautiful of all the parables, the Good Samaritan. It is only found in St Luke's Gospel.

The road from Jerusalem to Jericho descends 3,300 feet in just 17 miles. Its narrow passes and rocky terrain made it an easy place for bandits to wait for travellers. The traveller in this parable is identified only as "a certain man." St Luke uses this phrase in many of his parables so that the audience, Jew or Gentile, could identify with the man. After the attack, the man is left for dead, naked and bleeding on the side of the road. A priest comes along, but rather than helping, as one might expect, he moves to the other side of the road. Another religious person comes along, a Levite who assists in the Temple. His reaction is the same as the priest's. Both of them chose to not even find out if the man is alive. A third person comes along. The listeners would probably expect him to be an Israelite. This would make the parable a criticism of religious leadership. Instead he is a Samaritan, an Israelite's most hated neighbor. Samaritans were descendants of Jews from the northern part of the country, who had intermarried with Gentiles and did not worship in Jerusalem. The Samaritan not only goes over to the injured man but cleans his wounds, puts him on his own animal, takes him to an Inn to recover, and promises to pay all of his expenses. The hated enemy is the compassionate neighbor in this parable.

Jesus had demolished all boundary expectations. It is not social definitions such as class, religion, gender, or ethnicity that determines who is our neighbor. A neighbor is a person who acts with compassion toward one another. The point becomes not who deserves to be loved as I love myself, but that I become a person who treats everyone with compassion.

When Jesus asks the lawyer who was the neighbor in the story, the lawyer can't bring himself to say it was the Samaritan. All he says is "the man who treated him with mercy." Jesus' response was similar to that of the first discussion: "Go and do likewise." The lawyer, and we, know what is right. The key is to do it.

x---------x

The Gospel is made possible by Tom Ford.